Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. blamed the media for dragging his campaign Sunday, saying he has been slammed “even more than President Trump was slammed” by mainstream media outlets.

“I’ve been really, you know, slammed in a way that I think is unprecedented,” Kennedy said during an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”

Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic who is running a longshot primary campaign against President Joe Biden, is more popular among Republicans than Democrats, according to polling.

The nephew of former President John F. Kennedy and the son of his brother, Robert F. Kennedy, Kennedy Jr. has been hit with backlash for his stances on vaccines, particularly recent comments he made suggesting that the coronavirus could have been “targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people,” while sparing Jewish and Chinese people. Kennedy denied allegations of racism and antisemitism, saying on Twitter: “I have never, ever suggested that the Covid-19 virus was targeted to spare Jews.”

“I mean, listen, if I believed the stuff that’s written about me in the papers and reported about me on the mainstream news sites, I would definitely not vote for me,” Kennedy told host Maria Bartiromo. “I would think I was a very despicable person.”

  • MasterOBee Master/King@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    You linked a salon article that says a private source says that bannon secretly tried to get someone to run.

    Any, ya know, reliable sources?

    • TwoGems@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Steve Bannon has actively supported RFK on his podcast War Room. Just go watch War Room live.

      “Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon has spent nearly two years promoting anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist and Democratic presidential primary candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on his War Room podcast in a mutually beneficial relationship that could have disastrous public health consequences for the country and the world.”

      Steve Bannon only pushes specific alt right candidates. So why would he suddenly push Rfk Jr. Because he’s suddenly benevolent? He has direct ties to Qanon. There is major incentive to push RFK Jr. from a chaos agent standpoint.

      "Even relative to other right-wing media, Bannon’s podcast is a hotbed of conspiracy theories, many of which relate directly to COVID-19 and vaccines. He frequently pushes junk science from discredited charlatans like Naomi Wolf, has celebrated efforts to disrupt vaccine distribution, and claimed the pandemic was everything from a way to eradicate religion to a form of global war deliberately unleashed by China.

      Given this feverish and paranoid atmosphere, it’s not surprising that Bannon amplified Kennedy’s longstanding efforts to discredit safe and effective vaccines, including those that protect against COVID-19, and has now latched onto his nascent campaign. Both are ecumenical and opportunistic in their conspiracism, including pushing QAnon messages and influencers."

      https://www.mediamatters.org/steve-bannon/steve-bannon-has-spent-years-promoting-rfk-jr-and-his-crackpot-anti-vaccine-theories

      There are sources in each article. Or you could, ya know, just go watch Steve Bannon for a while and RFK talk, and research his links to all this.